The Ovary Is Surprisingly Active After Menopause. Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why

632 points by HeinieKaboobler 11 hours ago on reddit | 55 comments

HopeFloatsFoward | 9 hours ago

The same reason the uterus also produces hormones when not pregnant. Because women exist outside of being pregnant.

TheJarisaDoor3 | 7 hours ago

We exist, but I think they try not to see us. Hey, there are countries in the world where they require women be completely covered so they don't have to look at us.

sacfoojesta88 | 2 hours ago

That sounds pretty far fetched. I better go ask a man to get a sensible answer.
/s

ScoffersGonnaScoff | 10 hours ago

The article points out how we have a huge blind spot in the understanding of ovaries and their importance during and especially after menopause.

It’s bonkers we haven’t studied this much/enough. Ovaries have been dismissed as an egg factory whose hormone production levels were viewed as not substantial to women’s health.

katzeye007 | 9 hours ago

It's not bonkers when you understand societal structure. Penis fully mapped by 1800s, clitoris fully mapped by 1998

ScoffersGonnaScoff | 9 hours ago

Wow that’s also Bonkers

citizen42069101 | 8 hours ago

There's still people among us convinced women can't orgasm.

ScoffersGonnaScoff | 8 hours ago

If true, My assumption 95%+ male. Poor souls must feel useless… blocked from real connection and deep intimacy.

Kakakow | 8 hours ago

They don’t think it’s their problem because it’s not a problem for them.

ASpaceOstrich | 3 hours ago

My partner medically can't orgasm and sometimes it seems to bother me more than it bothers them.

heathercs34 | 7 hours ago

There are a ton of women who have never had an orgasm…

BunnyLovesTheStars | 3 hours ago

From partner sex? Sure. From masturbation? Nah.

SwordKneeMe | 7 hours ago

It took them that long to find it

athaluain | 6 hours ago

Most men have never found it.

JediKrys | 4 hours ago

It’s because they’re using their man looking skills….walk into pantry, shift head left and right, yell for my wife that we have no food in the house….

plabo77 | 6 hours ago

The more direct comparison of testicular functioning in advanced age has been better studied too. It’s known that testicular functioning gradually and continually decreases after around the age of 30 and that remaining testicular functioning into older age has numerous health benefits that are not directly related to reproduction.

PresentRaspberry6814 | 3 hours ago

Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona published the first complete three-dimensional map of mammalian ovaries across their entire reproductive lifespan in August 2026. [1, 2]

KirbyGlover | 9 hours ago

Medical misogyny is quite the thing ain't it? I'm very convinced that the only reason my spouse got their hysterectomy with minimal resistance is because I, the husband, was in the room when it was asked. That OBGYN was great and everything but given what I've heard from other folks that regularly see OBGYN's I'm still sure my presence helped immensely

VerilyShelly | 7 hours ago

I was pressured not to have one because I was single and childless (still a little disappointed in myself for that) and endured another 10+ years with a defective organ until middle age finally made it make sense to the medical community.

JediKrys | 4 hours ago

That’s EXACTLY why she got it. It’s fucking sad man.

Dragon_wryter | 8 hours ago

I remember reading an article that talked about how uterine and breast cancer research was only conducted on MEN until around the 1980s.

This isn't the article but it talks about the same thing https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/55644/was-a-study-of-uterine-cancer-conducted-solely-on-male-subjects

ScoffersGonnaScoff | 8 hours ago

Well, no.

The link you provided ~~explains~~ explicitly states
“My suspicion is that this is a mischaracterization of a real study, rather than a complete fabrication, but goodness knows what actual study the Tribune was referring to.”

Probably some BS clickbait misinformation that spread like wildfire?

AlabasterPelican | 8 hours ago

No. Women weren't required to be included by law for medical research until 1993 in the us.

FullyFunctionalCat | 5 hours ago

Unfortunately not

RoxyLA95 | 8 hours ago

It’s not bonkers because men do run the world.

evilisordinary | 8 hours ago

lol it says something about our society that the bodies responsible for actually growing all these god damn people were/are studied the least.

TheJarisaDoor3 | 7 hours ago

I think it's because once we were done reproducing they felt we didn't have a purpose anymore. It's a reason why men dump their 40-year-old wives for 20-year-olds. Science appears to have done the same thing.

carrotdog56 | 3 hours ago

I firmly believe that post menopausal women are what holds society together. There's so much wisdom and knowledge to be shared. They are finally free from being seen as a reproductive factory and get to be their true selves. I'm in perimenopause and I sense that change in me already.

TheJarisaDoor3 | 2 hours ago

I've been there. Something does turn off. I don't know if it's the same for every woman, but when I lost that hormonal drive my bullshit tolerance went way down. It's possible that that drive made me compromise more? And once it was gone that was it.

VerilyShelly | 7 hours ago

Intimidation is a hell of a blockage

Imaginary-Friend-228 | 8 hours ago

"surprisingly" to people who never bothered to check

BlazeCrystal | 9 hours ago

Its obviously dark magic of the witches being generated.

neuralek | 8 hours ago

Probably to let women live past the menopause and not just shut everything of importance down.

SquirrelAkl | 5 hours ago

But according to my GP we only need enough HRT to prevent hot flashes, anything else would be over-medicating. So can’t be that important, right?

/S

Mountainweaver | 8 hours ago

We evolved to be a "grandmother species", just like elephants. The survival of our genes improves when an elder generation sticks around to help the herd with soft skills and wisdom.

It's bonkers that medical science is this way.

Excellent-Muffin-750 | 7 hours ago

And Orca whales! Female orca go through menopause like we do

Mountainweaver | 6 hours ago

Apes too I assume, all the highly intelligent highly social mammals.

Ashamed-Status-9668 | 5 hours ago

carrotdog56 | 3 hours ago

It's amazing that we are finally getting to understand that other animals are as much complicated, knowledgeable and social as we are.

CautionarySnail | 9 hours ago

It’s about time.

candysticker | 7 hours ago

Unsurprising that one of our organs is still active and alive despite expiring past it's one and only use of making babies happen /s

MrsWidgery | 7 hours ago

Perhaps, then, it's not the one and only use, perhaps science just assumed that up until recently because it was done mostly by men. Maybe the activity that they are so surprised by is indicative that it has more functions than just "making babies happen".

UntidyVenus | 4 hours ago

Wait, are we studying women now? Is it because we found that extra organ we forgot about for like 100 years?

Edit - thank you kind redditor!

amazingmrbrock | 6 hours ago

Wait you're telling me women aren't the same as men? Is this discrimination against men?

/s

Grimdark-Waterbender | 8 hours ago

I’m like 95% sure that thumbnail is wrong. 😂

MaraiaLou | 3 hours ago

Nope, that's the famous wandering uterus

Granger842 | 3 hours ago

Maybe because women are people and not reproduction machines?

lizzledizzles | 2 hours ago

Because we exist beyond reproduction.

iknowmorethanyou555 | 4 hours ago

because they're dumb cunts thats why but more seriously no one cares about women's health enough to study it

PossibleAlienFrom | 9 hours ago

Whatever. I have family that lived to over 90-100 without walking and have some that died from exercise.

amccon4 | 9 hours ago

What in the hell does one thing have to do with the other?

asyork | 8 hours ago

It's their only source for medical knowledge, resulting in the "whatever."

Wolfwoods_Sister | 7 hours ago

It’s their medical degree from “Anecdotal Trust Me Bro” University